Islamic Philanthropy and Poverty Reduction in Indonesia: The Role of Integrated Islamic Social and Commercial Finance Institutions

The recent studies about the role of Islamic philanthropy in addressing socio-economic problems have been growing and confirming its significant role in overcoming the problem. This is in line with the existence of regulations that support the effectiveness of its role in poverty reduction in Indonesia, such as Law No. 23 of 2011 on Zakat Management and Law No. 41 of 2004 on Waqf. This study has two objectives. First, to analyze the impact of Islamic philanthropy on poverty reduction as the socio-economic problems in Indonesia in the short and long run. Second, to analyze the effectiveness of integrated Islamic commercial and social-economic or finance to address the poverty compared to unintegrated one. This study used Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) approach to analyze annual data for the period of 2002-2019 while investigating the long and short-run relationships among variables. It found that Islamic philanthropy reduces poverty both in the short and long run, particularly in the integration of Islamic social and commercial finance in a single model. The government should therefore include Islamic philanthropy or other Islamic social finances as a fundamental strategy for building financial stability and sustainable development. (Menjamurnya studi-studi terbaru terkait peran filantropi Islam dalam mengatasi masalah sosial-ekonomi telah mengkonfirmasi peran pentingnya dalam mengatasi masalah ini. Hal ini sejalan dengan adanya regulasi yang mendukung efektivitas perannya dalam pengentasan kemiskinan di Indonesia, seperti Undang-Undang Nomor 23 Tahun 2011 tentang Pengelolaan Zakat dan Undang-Undang Nomor 41 Tahun 2004 tentang Wakaf. Penelitian ini memiliki dua tujuan. Pertama, untuk menganalisis dampak filantropi Islam terhadap penurunan tingkat kemiskinan sebagai sebuah permasalahan sosial-ekonomi di Indonesia, baik dalam jangka pendek maupun jangka panjang. Kedua, untuk menganalisis efektifitas integrasi atau antara filantropi dan komersial dalam kerangka ekonomi Islam dalam mengatasi permasalahan kemiskinan. Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan Auto-Regressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) untuk menginvestigasi hubungan jangka pendek dan jangka panjang antara filantropi Islam dan tingkat kemiskinan selama periode tahun 2002-2019. Penelitian ini menemukan bahwa filantropi Islam dapat menurunkan tingkat kemiskinan baik dalam jangka pendek maupun jangka panjang. Penelitian ini juga menemukan bahwa ketika filantropi dan komersial dalam kerangka ekonomi Islam diintegrasikan, tingkat kemiskinan dapat diturunkan baik dalam jangka pendek maupun jangka panjang. Pemerintah seyogiyanya menempatkan filantropi Islam sebagai kebijakan dan strategi fundamental dalam rangka mewujudkan stabilitas keuangan dan pembangunan berkelanjutan.)

Rethinking Islamic Economic and Finance Practices in Indonesia: Some Critical Reviews

This research aimed to review and highlight some issues related to Islamic economic and finance practices in Indonesia. This research used qualitative-descriptive approach with content analysis, library research and critical studies method. This research found some critical points on islamic economic and finance practices in Indonesia, such as (i) islamic banking in Indonesia shows inconsistencies and unwillingly implementation; (ii) the Islamic economics practices not going too far from around financial sector (iii) the practice of islamic finance in indonesia is mostly focused on the Islamic Commercial Finance (ICF) sector and less concerned with Islamic Social Finance (ISF); (iv) shariah financial institutions is more precisely than what is called ”shariah bank” (v) epistemological problems in the islamic economics curriculum need to be answered and resolved to avoid a contraproductive output from its fundamental purposes. It is necessary to conduct re-orientation of sharia banking in order to strengthen the vision of sharia banking. All involving parties should be able to corporate, among them are academics, practitioners, governments, and, moreover, the role of scholars and organizations. It is reorientation and synergy of these parties which shall solve the problem of half-hearted implementation of banking and answer all criticism directed to the sharia banking all this time

Zwischenruf aus der Branche: Die digitale Transformation: eine Investitionsherausforderung

Der globale Anstieg von chronischen Erkrankungen setzt Krankenhäuser unter Druck. Die digitale Transformation trägt zur Entlastung bei, denn sie schafft ‚smarte‘, also intelligente Krankenhäuser. Es gibt sie jedoch nicht umsonst. Woher das Geld dafür nehmen und nicht stehlen? Kai-Otto Landwehr, Leiter des Commercial-Finance-Geschäfts von Siemens Financial Services (SFS), weiß Rat.

The breach of contractual indemnities under English law – a debt claim or a damages claim?

In 2015 the English High Court delivered two important but not widely publicised judgments in the cases of ABM Amro Commercial Finance plc v Ambrose McGinn & others [2014] EWHC 1674 (Comm.) and Durley House Limited v Firmdale Hotels plc [2014] EWHC 2608 (Ch.). Febechi Chukwu reviews those judgments, and several previous rulings by the English courts, concluding that the lack of a single interpretive rule for contractual indemnities in English law is a preferable approach. The English courts should be clearer in accepting the complexity of properly interpreting indemnities and assessing the available remedies for breach. Ultimately that assessment is substantially dependant on how the indemnity in question is drafted and constructed in the contract. The courts should boldly promote the more nuanced approach to determining whether a particular breach gives the innocent party a right to a claim in debt or a claim in damages, and this will be of benefit also to practitioners negotiating indemnity clauses in English law contracts.

THE ROLE OF INTEGRATED ISLAMIC COMMERCIAL AND SOCIAL FINANCE IN REDUCING INCOME INEQUALITY IN INDONESIA

Recent years saw the heated debates among prominent economists on the growinginequality in advanced economies, and accordingly, many solutions to this seriousproblem have been put forward. Among the practical-cum-workable solution isprogressive taxation for wealth and income, especially the top one percent. Such asolution, however, has been implemented in Islamic perspective what so-called, zakahwhich is now referred to as social finance. In this paper, using the Gini coefficient datacovering 34 provinces in Indonesia over a decade, we examine whether the role ofsocial finance in tandem with commercial finance can adequately solve the problemof wealth distribution in Indonesia, one of the largest Democratic-Muslim countriesin the world. Using the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) model, the resultsdemonstrated that Islamic commercial finance solely is proven statistically incapable oftackling inequality while the social finance (zakah) is performing very well in this matterover all specifications. Most importantly, when both are incorporated in a model, theresult showed a significant reduction in income inequality implying that the integratedIslamic finance which can be implemented in both Islamic microfinance institution andIslamic banking is more capable, as opposed to when both are separated, of helpingaddress the income inequality problem in Indonesia.